Tag Archives: North Africa

As the Obama administration continues to live in their fantasy world of the Islamic State (IS) being “defeated” by the “Coalition of the Reluctantly Willing” and a ill-conceived Twitter campaign, IS has been busy replenishing its ranks. They’ve been doing this and weakening their enemies by recruiting defectors from the other Syrian opposition factions (such as al-Nusra/Khorasan Group). A big driver for this is the directive Baghdadi put out for the terror organization to build local ties and form alliance in advance of future operations. One such example of al-Nusra/KG losing people to the other side is increased IS presence along the Lebanese-Syrian border. Other reports coming in describe entire opposition units in Halab, Hama, Homs, Idlib and dawr al-Zawr. The reasons for this are obvious:

– The other factions view IS as being the strongest faction in the regional war that will ultimately “crush” all opposition and the best chance to seriously challenge the Asad regime. In other words, everybody wants to be part of a “winner.”

Indeed, IS – or anybody for that matter – will enjoy a huge surge in recruitment when they’re doing well on the battlefield, which gets amplified by an effective IO campaign. This is also a great gauge to see how well the Obama administration’s IS strategy has been working out thus far. So how are they doing? Well for starters we’re hearing that the Gaza-based Mujahidin Shura Council (MSC) has pretty much been “disbanded” and absorbed into IS’ North African affiliates such as the Egypt-based Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (ABM). The MSC had been working to become a legitimate al-Qaida affiliate and had formed in 2012 (some reports will say as early as 2011) when three Gaza-based Salafi groups merged in response to guidance received from the al-Qaida (AQ) senior leadership. The MSC was very similar to the MSC that was set up in Iraq prior to the formation of the “Islamic State of Iraq” now known simply as the “Islamic State” (Long War Journal did a great piece on this in 2012 that remains applicable to the current situation).

Although primarily based in Gaza, the organization also had a presence in Egypt’s Sinai region and Libya. However, the effort fell through due to unknown reasons, but it may have to do with internal problems the entity had. In fact, by NOV 14 we had began to see elements of the MSC’s branch in Sinai had already defected to ABM. The terror group also made in-roads elsewhere by forming an alliance with its splinter group Ajnad Masr for increased joint-operations in the Cairo-area as discussed in our piece titled “Haftar-Sisi Alliance: The Roadblock to ISIS Bridge Into the Maghreb.” We assess that the addition of MSC personnel into ABM’s ranks will bolster the Sinai group’s capabilities with knowledge of alternative smuggling routes at the local-level coming into play to avoid the Sisi regime’s crackdown on IS affiliates.

The act of absorbing one’s enemies is not a new phenomenon and is actually part of the long history of the Islamic religion itself. As we’ve seen throughout the Middle East’s extremely violent history of conquest after conquest, the 21st regrettably isn’t any different. ABM itself formed in 2011 as a by-product of the so-called “Arab Spring” that the Obama administration supported that led to installing the Muslim Brotherhood as the new regime in Egypt. The terror group mainly targeted the Jewish population in the Sinai and throughout Israel itself, although this all changed when GEN Sisi came to power and began systematically targeting all jihadist elements in the country that was allowed to flourish under the Morsi regime. Since aligning itself with IS, the group has adopted some – but not all – of Baghdadi’s ideology. The act of beheading enemies (especially those deemed to be “traitors”) is now a recurring theme for the organization after pledging allegiance to Baghdadi’s “Caliphate.”

ABM: The ISIS Cancer spreading throughout the body of North Africa and GazaSource: al-Arabiya

As of this writing ABM has been focused on expanding IS’ influence in Gaza, the Sinai and Libya in order to secure smuggling routes that are supporting the overall effort in Syria against the Assad regime. Central to this is ABM’s Sinai campaign to secure the gateway to Gaza and by extension Syria – the increased presence along the Lebanese-Syrian border is part of this greater strategic vision the senior IS leadership has for the region. A great deal of weapons and foreign fighters coming from Tunisia and Libya are going through Egypt, Gaza and Northern Lebanon to get to Syria (both straight into Syria or through Turkey). Of the Libyan weapons being sent to facilitate the anti-Assad war effort, the majority of them are coming from weapons depots in Misrata and Benghazi. On 29 AUG 14 we stated in “The Strategic Importance of Egypt to ISIS” that the terror group had not yet firmly entrenched itself inside Egypt, but was getting close as the result of ABM aligning itself with Baghdadi. Today, we can say that ABM has made great strides since then despite being targeted by the Sisi regime – and they’re going to become a much greater threat with absorbing the MSC into its ranks.

Sisi regime declared “open season” for hunting down IS and its affiliatesSource: ISIS Study Group

Economic warfare against members of the “Coalition of the Reluctantly Willing” has also steadily increased in both Egypt and Libya, with oil pipelines being regular targets in IED attacks aiming to disrupt the economies of not just Egypt and Libya, but also that of Jordan and European nations such as Italy. Another reason is that they they can gain access to fuel sources to sell on the black market and supply their forces. This is indicative of the cross-border coordination one can expect from multiple groups that have united under a common umbrella – in this case the Black Flag of IS. Below are a few examples of alleged IEDs emplaced targeting Libyan oil pipeline between Sarir Field and Hergia Port that we received from our in-country sources:

Source: The ISIS Study Group

Source: The ISIS Study Group

The alliance between the Sisi regime and Libyan GEN Khalifah Haftar may have struck IS strongholds inside Libya, but the jihadist organization has answered back with a series of bombings targeting the joint-Egyptian/Haftar faction command center in Quba. They didn’t stop there – they also launched an attack against the Iranian embassy in Tripoli last week. The attack served two purposes:

– To target a major hub for coordinating IRGC-Qods Force and Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) intelligence operations in the country. The Iranian regime will typically coordinate intelligence operations inside of a target country from their embassies and consulates. In fact, cultural centers set up by Iranian diplomatic missions are staffed with MOIS and Qods Force personnel to provide cover.

– Sending a message to Iran and the West that IS has firmly entrenched itself inside Libya. The Iranian Ambassador was not present at the compound when it was attacked, suggesting the target was symbolic in nature.

In addition to being an avenue from which to target Western economies, Libya is also a potential launching pad for jihadists looking to travel to Europe under the guise of “refugees” to facilitate the execution of attacks on the continent. This will also affect the US due to the naive policy of the Obama administration to admit thousands of refugees from places like Libya, Yemen, Syria and Iraq. Refugees who obtain citizenship to a European nation will also be able to circumvent the largely nonexistent enforcement of US border security laws to enter the country under the guise of “tourists” or “students” – with DHS completely oblivious of their usage of this status to further a much more insidious agenda.

As 2014 was the year that put IS on “the map,” 2015 will be the year that we see greater expansion into North Africa going into Gaza and the border-area with Lebanon. This will also be the year that we will see IS begin reaching out “to touch” Europe and the US with attacks conducted by well-organized cells with extensive experience in Syria and Iraq as opposed to the home-grown jihadist cells we’ve seen in Denmark, French and Belgium attacks. It will also become painfully obvious to those still in denial that the Obama administration has a strong strategy against IS – which it doesn’t. In a time where the world needs a Churchill, Patton and Montgomery we’re getting it – its just coming from GEN Sisi, GEN Haftar, King Abdullah and Bibi Netanyahu instead of the US government. However, these great men have limits in what they can do. They will need much greater US military assistance – far greater than what’s currently being given. The Libyan people have been taking to the streets demanding that GEN Haftar take command of the Army as they view him as the best shot they have at eradicating the IS threat. We should be supporting GEN Haftar and GEN Sisi in their efforts. Considering the fact that the Obama administration still thinks IS fighters are just bored young men looking for jobs while downplaying the significance of Islamic fundamentalism.

Our sources have reported that the Egyptian Special Forces Unit 999 executed a joint-raid with the forces of Libyan GEN Khalifah Haftar after the start of airstrikes against Islamic State (IS) positions inside Libya. Unit 999 and GEN Haftar’s forces conducted a raid on a camp located in the Dernah-area (variant: Darna) resulting in the total destruction of the camp. This particular camp is said to have a heavy-foreign fighter presence consisting of Tunisian, Egyptian and Algerian fighters. This particular camp appears to be part of the facilitation ratlines sending weapons and fighters to Syria through Egypt and Gaza, which is probably why the Sisi regime chose to target this location. IS responded by targeting the GEN Haftar stronghold of Quba in a series of bombings.

The ratlines coming out of Libya are also fueling IS-affiliate Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (ABM) to continue moving forward in their campaign to secure the Sinai Peninsula to use as the gateway to Gaza, Jordan and Syria. If you suspect there’s a great sense of urgency on the part of Egypt to eradicate the IS presence in Libya and the Sinai, you would be correct. The reason for the increased operations in both areas has everything to do with ABM attempting to reach out to other jihadist groups in the country to bolster their ranks and create a “unified” command. Unconfirmed reporting has come out over the past few weeks about ABM allegedly reaching out to the Cairo-based group Ajnad Masr for the purpose of conducting joint-operations against the regime. This is significant since Ajnad Masr splintered from ABM in 2013 over their pro-IS leanings and regional agenda as opposed to just targeting the Egyptian government. If confirmed, then ABM will have an effective action-arm for conducting operations inside Cairo itself (ABM’s Cairo operations had been disrupted over the last 4 months due to security sweeps). Adding weight to this possibility are the reports that Ajnad Masr may be looking to target western embassies in the capital.

The Libyan-affiliate of IS has been expanding rather quickly in the country and initiated the targeting of westerners, as demonstrated in the late-JAN attack on the Corinthia Hotel in Tripoli and early-FEB attack on an oil field near Sirt. Regarding the oil field attack, IS was looking for westerners but ended up killing one US citizen, a French citizen and three Filipino overseas foreign workers (OFWs) taken hostage. As we’ve seen in Syria and Iraq, a key part of increasing the group’s capabilities revolves around seizing critical infrastructure such as power plants, oil fields and refineries, and its no different here in Libya. We fully expect IS will continue to target Libyan oil infrastructure in order to target western workers, generate revenue and pressure the governments of other target countries – to include EU members.

We assess that GEN Haftar’s faction and the Sisi regime will continue planning for additional joint-operations similar to the Dernah camp raid. The UAE has been sending additional military equipment and weapons/ammo in support of these operations and has apparently signaled that they intend to increase their air campaign on IS targets in the country. Libya is of great importance as it gives IS a main hub from which to support expansion efforts throughout North Africa while providing additional logistical support to the war effort in Syria. The effort is deemed so important by IS leadership that they sent a “support package” consisting of cadre who fought US forces in Iraq to the country to assist in setting up the official affiliate. Furthermore, we assess that six months after IS sends such a group to an area that an affiliate is able to become fully operational. These personnel are a combination of structural IS fighters and personalities native to the target area. Regarding Libya, such personnel aren’t in short supply as the country was a major contributor of foreign fighters for the IS forerunner AQI during the OIF-era (its worth noting many of these personnel came from Benghazi). As such, what we’re seeing in Libya will likely be what we’ll see in the AF/PAK region six months from now. We also see indications that these same type of cadre were sent to Nigeria to assist Boko Haram 12 to 18 months ago. They have also sent similar cadre packages to other Maghreb states in North Africa, particularly those with active insurgencies.

Its also worth noting that both GENs Haftar and Sisi have not been receiving adequate US military support. More damning is that the Obama administration has even supported “moderate elements” of the Arab Spring that were not hardly at all moderate – such as the Muslim Brotherhood (MB -which is the father of the modern Sunni terrorist) for instance. The result was a MB-dominated Egyptian government that became increasingly pro-jihadist and a Libya that became far less stable than it ever was when the Qaddafi regime was in power. The result was our Cairo Embassy being overrun, Libya mission being closed and our ambassador to that country being killed by the very same “moderates” that the Obama administration supported. Once GEN Sisi seized power he took note of what happened to his mentor Hosni Mubarak and has grown closer to Russia. In fact, US influence throughout the Middle East – and globally – has been on significant decline for the past 6 yrs, which began to accelerate at the start of the Arab Spring. If you were wondering why we’re seeing Jordan, Egypt, the UAE and France are now “in the lead” in the fight against ISIS, that’s why – and that isn’t a good thing. The United States is not “more respected” as the Obama administration claimed we would be nor are we feared. The decisions of the American voter in the last two presidential elections won’t fully manifest itself for another 1-2 yrs – but when it does, there will be a lot of blood spilled.

One could be justified for being perplexed about Pope Francis’s choice of Lampedusa, a tiny island off the coast of Sicily and Italy’s — indeed Europe’s — southernmost tip, as the destination of his very first official visit, which took place on July 8. Not a world capital, not a place in some important geopolitical region of the globe.

What is significant, even symbolic, about Lampedusa is its geography: The small island, with a population of 5,000, is positioned in the middle of the Mediterranean, making it close to the Muslim world, even closer to Tunisia than Sicily.

These two conditions explain what’s been happening to Lampedusa for over a decade, and how it could be a miniature model of the whole of Europe in the not-too-distant future.

Since at least 2001, Lampedusa has been a primary entry point into Europe for immigrants, mostly illegal from Africa. Tens of thousands have been landing here over the years, peaking during the “Arab Spring.” In 2011, according to a report of the United Nation’s Human Rights Council, “[a]pproximately 60,000 irregular migrants arrived [in Italy] as part of the 2011 influx from North Africa,” mainly from Tunisia and Libya. Around 50,000 of these came to Lampedusa.

Over 10,000 received residence permits on humanitarian grounds, because the Italian government declared a state of humanitarian emergency in February 2011, subsequently extended until December 2012.

In Lampedusa, the temporary immigrant reception center where outsiders were accommodated and sent to other facilities where they could request asylum, became so overcrowded that thousands of people had to sleep outdoors and in shelters provided by the local parish and ordinary Lampedusans.

On those occasions, when natives were outnumbered, there were tales of local women having to be accompanied everywhere to protect them from immigrants’ unwanted attention, sacked shops, apartment doors forced open, people returning home to find Tunisians sitting at the dining table eating and, after the intruders’ departure, some householders even discovering faeces inside saucepans.

The island became what one newspaper called “a huge immigrant camp.”

Maybe expecting to find a hotel reception and with scarcely a thought about the crisis they were creating on the small island, the illegal immigrants were complaining, as in the video below, describing what they found in Lampedusa as “shameful” and pontificating “the reception is zero” as if they were giving a hotel review on TripAdvisor:

This video confirms what Lampedusa Mayor Bernardino De Rubeis said: “We have here young Tunisians who arrogantly want everything immediately, just like criminals, ready to endanger our lives and theirs.” He later added: “We’re in a war, and the people will react. There are people here who want to go out into the streets armed with clubs.”

Al-Qaida’s (AQ) international terrorist network will rebound but shift tactics – seeking more frequent smaller-sized attacks in the coming years, a newly released Canadian intelligence report finds.

“The death of Osama bin Laden, the popular uprisings spreading across the Middle East and North Africa, and the global recessionary pressures that are causing governments to re-evaluate their [counter terror] strategies are amongst the many far-reaching developments that will influence AQ’s future prospects,” the report said.

The report emanated from the findings of a workshop sponsored by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) Academic Outreach program in January. It sought to explore AQ’s future in the next decade. It relied solely on open-source information and studied different variables that would influence AQ’s evolution in the coming years, including the network’s external and internal environments.

Instability in AQ strongholds in the Middle East and Africa, combined with preoccupation of regional and Western governments with local security concerns such as mass violence and regime collapse may help the terrorist group “cultivate popular support; attract new recruits; inspire homegrown Western terrorists; acquire new weapons and funding; secure existing safe havens; and reach into new operating theatres,” the report said.

Al-Qaida’s future also will be shaped by its ideological goals, leadership, structure, and resources. This would include the internal debate raging in AQ affiliates regarding global v. local jihad as well as the leadership crisis resulting from the killing of senior al-Qaida leaders.

Since AQ “does not accept defeat,” the report concludes, it will shift its focus to waging more “small rudimentary attacks.” To the extent anti-Western sentiment continues to sell among the local population, AQ’s political and other sympathizers will “succeed in embedding the network’s extremist views in state institutions.” AQ’s antipathy towards the West will then be “expressed through both terror attacks and indirect state-to-state tensions.”

In March, the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service announced that a growing number of jihadists are being recruited in Switzerland. The number of robberies and assaults on Swiss trains has skyrocketed to such an extent that the Swiss government recently opted to equip transport police with firearms, and at least 1,400 women in Switzerland have been victims of forced marriages.

A controversial new report by the Swiss government claims that Muslim immigrants are so well integrated into Swiss society that no further federal policies or programs are needed to promote Muslim integration or to counter Islamic extremism.

Published by the Swiss Federal Council [Bundesrat] on May 8, the 102-page study — known by the short title, “The Situation of Muslims in Switzerland” — so completely downplays the countless problems associated with Muslim immigration in Switzerland that the report has been ridiculed as being worthy of a “case study in political correctness.”

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The study has left many Swiss voters scratching their heads in disbelief because it is common knowledge that the twin issues of multiculturalism and Muslim immigration are far more problematic than the rosy assessment proffered by Swiss cabinet.

According to a recent survey of popular perceptions of Islam produced by the Bertelsmann Foundation, fully half of all Swiss voters view Islam as a threat to their country, and 58% believe it does not belong in the Western world. Two-thirds of Swiss voters view Islam as a source of conflict. Considering that hardly a day goes by without news of some Islam-related problem in Switzerland, those survey results are not surprising.

In May 2013, for example, it emerged that more than two-thirds of the pupils attending 80 schools in Zürich do not speak any German. At one school in the Sihlfeld district of Zürich, only one pupil is a native German speaker. In Basel, the lack of German language skills among Muslim immigrants is so acute that politicians are seeking to establish quotas at the so-called ghetto schools, requiring that at least 30% of the students at any given school be native German speakers.

Also in May, the Supreme Court of Switzerland ruled that a 14-year-old Muslim girl could not be excused from swimming lessons just because the teacher was male. Her parents had sought permission, but school officials had rejected the request. In its ruling, the Supreme Court referred to a 2008 ruling that established the principle that obligatory swimming lessons take precedence over religious duties.

In April, it emerged that since the beginning of the Arab Spring, the crime rate in Switzerland has doubled, and some politicians are now demanding that all male asylum seekers from North Africa and the Middle East provide DNA samples that would be stored in a data bank to help Swiss police investigate crimes.

In March, the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service (FIS) warned that a growing number of jihadists [holy warriors] are being recruited in Switzerland. In an interview with the Swiss newspaper Berner Oberländer on March 11, the head of Swiss intelligence, Markus Seiler, said, “What worries us, is that there are more and more people in our country who are recruiting Swiss people for jihad.” More than two dozen Swiss Muslims are thought to have travelled to Syria to join the fighting there.

In February, the Vimentis polling platform, in its annual survey for 2013, found that immigration is by far the top issue of concern for Swiss voters. It also found that nearly 70% of Swiss voters favor increasing the number of police officers in the country due to rising levels of insecurity.

In January, Swiss authorities said they are bracing for a massive increase in asylum seekers in 2013. The government had budgeted for 23,000 asylum applications for 2013, but that figure is forecast to hit 30,000. Costs to deal with political refugees are expected to explode to 1.43 billion francs ($1.5 billion).

In November 2012, the chief of police for the Swiss canton of Zug, Beat Villiger, said Switzerland needs at least1,500 more police officers to fight a crime wave perpetrated by foreign gangs. Villiger said: “The professionalization of criminals in the areas of pickpocketing, tricks and skimming [from ATM machines using duplicate credit card readers and wireless cameras] is rising.” He also called for special prisons for failed asylum seekers and increased video surveillance in trains. The number of robberies and assaults on Swiss trains has skyrocketed to such an extent that the Swiss government recently opted to equip transport police with firearms.

Also in November, Swiss police arrested several members of a Muslim gang called Jamahat who forced adolescents from disadvantaged families in the cities of Le Locle and La Chaux-de-Fonds to convert to Islam and then to sell drugs. The Jamahat gang is made up of young Muslim men originally from Afghanistan, Chechnya and the former Yugoslavia. According to police, the group “is attempting to radicalize its activities by seeking to impose — by physical and psychological violence — a monopoly on the sale of marijuana in our region.”

In nearby Lausanne, the imam of a local mosque was accused of polygamy after he married a Swiss woman who converted to Islam. Both the imam and the woman were already legally married to other spouses. The polygamous marriage was performed in a religious ceremony; however, in Switzerland only civil marriages are officially recognized by the state.

In October, Muslims complained about “offensive” advertising by Swiss Airlines. The campaign included large-format posters depicting an airplane with the red and white cross of the Swiss flag painted on the tail fin, accompanied by the slogan “Cross is Trump” [Kreuz ist Trumpf, a play on words referring to card games]. Muslims were outraged by what they said was a “Christian slogan used as a provocation and attack against Islam.” Swiss Airlines said its advertising campaign carries no religious or political message.

Also in October, a sixth grade boy at a school in Winterthur was forced to change schools after Muslim children repeatedly pressured him to convert to Islam. The problems began after one of the boys, whose father is an imam, tried to force the boy to pray to Allah. After the boy refused, the Muslim child began ridiculing his Christian faith. Soon thereafter, other Muslim classmates (14 of the 19 boys in the sixth grade class are Muslim) began harassing the boy, even calling for him to be killed for refusing to bow the knee to Allah. Muslim children at the same school have also sought to enforce Islamic dress codes.

That same month, a gym teacher at the André-Chavanne school in Geneva prevented female students from using a track field on Fridays because of complaints from a nearby mosque. When outraged parents confronted the teacher, she justified her action by saying she was concerned for the girls’ safety because Muslims had previously shouted insults at them.

In September, the Swiss House of Representatives voted against banning Muslim women from wearing burkas in public spaces. Parliamentarians who voted against the burka ban argued it would “encourage negative opinions of Switzerland” and “hurt tourism from Muslim countries.”

In August, a study conducted by a pair of academics from the University of Neuchâtel found that at least 1,400 Muslim women in Switzerland have been the victims of forced marriages. Most forced marriages involve Muslim immigrants from the Balkans, Turkey and Sri Lanka.

In June, Swiss police warned that radical Muslim groups are using Switzerland as a base from which to promote jihad in Europe and beyond. Islamists in Switzerland are providing jihadists with logistical support, and also stepping up their use of Internet websites there to spread Islamic propaganda as well as to incite their supporters to commit acts of terrorism and violence. In response to the rising threat from radical Islam, Swiss police launched a new specialist IT research department to intensify efforts to monitor jihadist websites and their operators.

In February, leading Islamic groups in Switzerland announced plans to establish their own parliament that will enable all of the country’s Muslims to “speak with one voice,” and that their new “parliament” will be based on the principles of Islamic Sharia law. Swiss analysts, according to an exposé published by the newspaper Basler Zeitung, say the initiative is an effort to establish a “parallel” legislative body in Switzerland that will be a mouthpiece for Islamic fundamentalists who are seeking to impose Sharia law in the country.

In January, the extremist Islamic Central Council of Switzerland (IZRS) announced that it was trying to raise money from countries in the Persian Gulf to build a 20-million Swiss franc ($21 million) mega-mosque in Bern. With three floors, the planned mosque would be the biggest in Switzerland. In addition to a prayer room for more than 500 worshippers, the building would have conference and training rooms, shops, underground parking and a garden.

In September 2011, an immigrant group based in Bern called for the emblematic white cross to be removed from the Swiss national flag because as a Christian symbol it “no longer corresponds to today’s multicultural Switzerland.” In an interview with the Swiss newspaper Aargauer Zeitung, a Muslim activist said the cross has a Christian background, and while the Christian roots of Switzerland should be respected, “it is necessary to separate church and state” because “Switzerland today has a great religious and cultural diversity. One has to ask if the State wants to continue building up a symbol in which many people no longer believe.”

In reality, the entire US-led NATO Libyan fiasco was the worst of see no Islam, see no jihad, see no Sharia bad plans as discussed at length in a presentationhere. (See also John Rosenthal’s superb monograph on the subject, and Diana West’s recent interview of Rosenthal)

Kudos to Texas Rep. Farenthold who pierced the Ambassador Rice talking points epiphenomenon during today’s Benghazi hearings, and grabbed hold, if ever so briefly and superficially, of one of the myriad examples of how our catastrophic policy in Libya empowered North African jihadism.

This loony, self-destructive policy was epitomized in the choice of the “February 17th Martyrs Brigade”—named after the jihadist rioters killed by then US-supported Libyan (anti-jihadist) strongman Qaddafi while they were sacking the Italian embassy in Benghazi, because Italian minister (of Constitutional reforms) Roberto Calderoli wore the satirical Muhammad cartoon image (from Le Soir’s front page, published February 1, 2006, just below, which simply said,“Don’t rale [rage] Muhammad…We’ve all been caricatures here”), on a tee shirt (also below) he exposed on Italian state television.

At 3 minutes of this clip, Rep. Farenthold asks about the “February 17th militia,” i.e., the February 17th Martyr’s Brigade

At the 4:10 mark Rep Farenthold queries, “I am going to ask you both this question…I am stunned that the state dept. was relying on a militia with extremist ties to protect American Diplomats….that doesn’t make any sense. How does that happen?” Eric Nordstrom replies, “You mean like in Afghanistan where Afghanis that are working with our Military that are embedded & turn on them and shoot them…or uh Yemen where our Embassy was attacked in 2008 by attackers wearing police uniforms.”

Listen till the end (of this 5-minute segment), when a perplexed and dismayed Rep. Farenthold rather generously characterizes the choice of the “February 17th Martyrs Brigade” as the security force for the US compound in Benghazi, as “The Best of Bad Plans”….

Nordstrom state’s that they “found it difficult to extract themselves” from the Libyan govenment’s offering of the jihadist February 17th Martyrs Brigade for protection. Why? Because they mistakenly believed that Jihad is caused by our actions and not mandated by Islam itself against all infidels until they “feel themselves” subdued and submit.

The Ansar al Sharia Brigade, the Islamist terror group linked to the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, continues to operate freely in that Libyan city, according to U.S. military officials.

The group remains active in the Mediterranean port city, operating patrols and checkpoints, and earlier this year reached an agreement with other Islamist groups allowing it to operate openly, said military officials familiar with intelligence reports from North Africa.

The group “continues to spread its ideology in the Benghazi area, particularly targeting youth,” said one official, who noted that the lack of central government security was the key reason the militia has not been suppressed.

The officials disclosed details of the group’s activities on condition of anonymity.

Ansar al Sharia also is using Facebook to publicize its activities, including charitable work in poor areas, and is constructing some buildings. It also claimed to be operating a medical clinic in Benghazi. Other activities include repairing schools and holding conferences for local youth.

According to the officials, the group successfully exploited the weakness of security authorities in Benghazi and Libya in general to boost its presence. The group is attempting to reinvent itself as a humanitarian and charitable organization after the Sept. 11 attack.

By Charles Jacobs:

Israel Apartheid Week has come and gone this year on many American campuses. It was, of course, a hoax: However much Arabs in Israel suffer, and whoever is to blame for it, there is no apartheid in Israel.

Meanwhile, however, in Sudan and Mauritania, racist Arab societies enslave blacks. Today. Most of the slaves are African Muslims. Yet there is no Arab Apartheid Week on American campuses. Why not?

One might think American student activists would be upset about Mauritania, the West African country with the largest population of black slaves in the world – estimates range from 100,000 to more than a half-million. In Mauritania, slaves are used for labor, sex and breeding. The wholly owned property of their masters, they are passed down through generations, given as wedding gifts or exchanged for camels, trucks, guns or money.

Surely, life is not so good in a Palestinian refugee camp – no matter who is to blame, but it’s undeniably a whole lot worse for Mauritanian slaves. According to a Human Rights Watch/Africa report, routine punishments for slaves in Mauritania – for the slightest fault – include beatings, denial of food and prolonged exposure to the sun, with hands and feet tied together. More serious infringement of the master’s rule (in American slave-owning parlance, “getting uppity”) can lead to prolonged tortures known as “the camel treatment,” in which the slave’s body is slowly torn apart; the “insect treatment,” in which tiny desert insects are inserted and sealed into the ear canal until the slave is driven mad; and “burning coals,” a torture not fit to describe in a family newspaper. Perhaps the reason for silence on campuses about these things is that the story of black slaves and their Arab masters remains unknown there. It would, of course, be a sensitive topic: slavery has existed in Mauritania since the 12th century, when Arab tribes from the Arabian Peninsula invaded and conquered North Africa. Raiders then stormed African villages to the south, pillaging, enslaving and converting the indigenous peoples to Islam. While the Koran forbids the enslavement of fellow Muslims, just as in the West, in North Africa racism trumped religious doctrine. The descendants of those Arab invaders are today’s slave owners. The descendants of those captured as slaves in jihad raids are in human bondage today. These are, then, black Muslim slaves – who, for racist reasons, aren’t allowed to touch the Koran with their black hands, who can’t marry without their owners’ permission, and whose children belong to the master.

Not all blacks in Mauritania are slaves. But all are oppressed by Arab colonialism. (You might even call the Arabs in North Africa “settlers,” if you wanted to be testy.) Arab Berbers (or “White Africans”) constitute less than a third of Mauritania’s population of 3.5 million people, but they control the government and military, as well as the education and the court systems.

Like Martel’s campaigns before them, the Crusades were defensive actions designed to stave off Muslim aggression. Oh, this isn’t what you learned in college, I know. It’s not what we hear from the media. It isn’t what’s portrayed by Hollywood. But it is the truth.

The year is 632 A.D., and Muslim hordes have set their sights on the Mideast and North Africa — the old Christian world. And the Caliphate, as the Islamic realm is called, will not be denied. Syria and Iraq fall in 636. Palestine is next in 638. And Byzantine Egypt and North Africa, not even Arab lands, are conquered by 642 and 709, respectively. Then, just two years later, the Muslims cross the Strait of Gibraltar and enter Iberia (now Spain and Portugal). The invasion of Europe has begun.

And the new continent seems no impediment to Islam. After vanquishing much of Visigothic Iberia by 718, the Muslims cross the Pyrenees Mountains into Gaul (now France) and move northward. Now it is 732, and they are approaching Tours, a mere 126 miles from Paris. The Western world — what’s left of Christendom — could very well be on its way to extinction.

Europe is currently easy prey, comprising disunited, often belligerent kingdoms and duchies recently decimated by plague. In contrast, the Islamic world is a burgeoning civilization; so much so, in fact, that it views the Europeans as barbarians. The Muslims also command enormous battle-hardened military forces and have enjoyed almost unparalleled breadth and rapidity of conquest, while Europe no longer has standing armies. It largely relies on peasants to do its fighting, men available only when crops aren’t beckoning. Yet the Christian Europeans do have one great asset: Charles of Herstal, grandfather of Charlemagne.

Sensing the coming storm as early as 721, Charles realized he was going to need a professional, well-oiled fighting force if he was to tackle the Moorish wave washing across Christendom. So, using Catholic Church resources, he set out to train just such an army. And now, 11 years later, it will be put to the ultimate test.

With a horde of 80,000 men, the Muslims once again start moving north in 732 under the leadership of Emir Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi. And after defeating Odo the Great and sacking his Duchy of Aquitaine, there is nothing standing between Al Ghafiqi and Paris — except Charles of Herstal and his Frankish and Burgundian army. The two leaders would lock horns in October, on a battlefield between the towns of Tours and Poitier.
Read more at American Thinker

Determined to win and win in a short time, French fighter planes began lightning strikes on Islamist strongholds in northern Mali Friday. Since then, the strikes have intensified, as have the amount of ground troops – now at 550 – that France has brought in for support.The French specifically stepped in as radical Islamists, who had taken over northern Mali last April, began a successful expansion campaign into the central region of the country, threatening to reach Bamako, the capital.

Seven other countries have joined the effort, including the U.S., who is providing communications support, and Britain, who is sending aircrafts to help transport troops from neighboring countries.

Since taking over the northern part of the country (an area greater than the size of France), the Al Qaeda-linked groups have imposed the most extreme form of Sharia (Islamic) law on the territory, amputating arms for those accused of thievery, public whippings of women for wearing perfume or makeup, flogging men for smoking cigarettes, and stoning to death individuals accused of adultery. Alcohol, music and watching sports on television have also been forbidden. The Islamists began their campaign in the region by smashing historic tombs and shrines located in Timbuktu.

Tens of thousands of Malians have fled the region, with those left behind having to deal with the horrors of everyday life under the Islamists.

“France’s goal is to lead a relentless struggle against terrorist groups,” the ministry said, “preventing any new offensive of these groups to the south of Mali,” said France’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Mali map (Source: CIA)

The Islamists rapid expansion into central Mali prompted the French to take action to prevent Al Qaeda terrorists from establishing large terrorist bases from which to launch attacks in Europe and link to other Islamist groups in Somalia, Yemen and northern Africa.

France’s goal is also to provide support to Malian government forces, who are hoping to soon be joined by troops from other African nations to take back their country.

This is a very interesting essay that was posted in French on the website kabyles.net. It is written by a Kabyle, one of the indigenous peoples of Algeria who were subjugated by Muslims. In the essay, the author reflects on the similarities of his own people’s historical experience of being islamised and what is happening to contemporary Europe, especially France. I’ve translated most of it but not all of it. If you can read French, I suggest you read all of it at the link provided.

When I was a teenager I thought that my ancestors were idiots, useless imbeciles for having accepted this miserable religion 15 centuries ago. I was ashamed of my people of origin. I forgot that they had simply been beaten in war and submitted to their conquerors who hurried to rewrite their history.

That twisted history that I learned myself at school and had to unlearn on my own, through effort and perseverance. Looking at France, Belgium, Germany, England, Spain and lots of other countries too, I realise that even people who have been warned can be islamised by stealth, by small innocent touches. In truth, it’s their political, cultural and economic environment that is being islamised under the attacks of new unassimilable North African populations.

As usual, the jihadists islamise the “continent” and the leaders first, then the “human content” adapts bit by bit after one or two generations. It’s a quiet colonisation of spirits and space. Of course the leaders of France deny it. It’s as if you’re looking at the big hand on a watch: fix your eyes on it and you would swear that it doesn’t move, but after a while it’s in a different place all the same. They fell for it!

French men, French women, don’t be surprised if one day the islamists force you to rewrite your own history. I say to you: don’t be surprised if you happen to notice it. They already forbid you, just by being there, from mentioning the battle of Poitiers and Charles Martel. In expecting you to teach in your schools that Charles Martel did not fight Islam, but only some undisciplined Muslim soldiers who took to pillaging.

They are already obliging you to revise your national identity by making you say publicly that Islam is one of the roots of France, waiting till it becomes the only root.

They already claim Victor Hugo was a Muslim, Commander Cousteau was a religious fanatic 5 times a day and that Bonaparte admired the genius of Islamic civilisation.

You liste soberly to Malek Chebel telling you about the Golden Age of Islam and to a “really nice” reading of the Koran without anyone laughing at it openly.

You already let Bouteldja insulte you with impunity on all the television panels and MRAP drags you in front of the courts with the first breath that isn’t halal.

You already hear Tariq Ramadan keep trotting out to you that jihad is a defensive combat, without anyone asking what the Muslims were defending themselves from in North Africa, Spain, the Balkans, India, Vienna and Poitiers.

You are already eating halal without knowing it and if this goes on, soon you will close your butcher’s shops and your bar terraces, without knowing it either. They have already put you on your knees byu forcing you to acknowledge the greatest lie in history, namely that the West discovered philosophy, mathematics, science, astronomy and technology thanksw to Islam which generously passed them on to you (all the same forgetting to pass them on to Muslims).

Soon, you will be ashamed in bulk of Pierre and Marie Curie, Voltaire, Pasteur, Flaubert, Claude Levis Strauss, Molière, Louis IV and Jean Moulin. These renegades betrayed the Islamic roots of France!

Islam doesn’t give a damn about the truth, history and the identity of peoples. The only thing that counts for it is that these people submit to its law. It demands therefore as a sign of submission that these peoples themselves revise their own history, making a travesty of the truth, deny their collective identity, change their cultural references, profane their ancient religious places and discredit their own symbols. This is what all the people conquered by Arabo-Islamism have done. This is what the majority of elite intellectuals, almost all elected representatives, the majority of artists and almost all the French media. Only the ordinary people remain, silently enraged. And even the ordinary people are infested with the suicidally naive.

I say to the French people who are collaborating and the French people who are sleeping: France, and beyond that all of Europe, is at an advanced stage of its islamisation from on high. You have already accepted Islam from the moment where the you complain about radical Islamand Salafists. That implies that you don’t have a problem with living under the yoke of an Islam that is temporarily more soft. ¬Don’t delude yourself: even the softest Islam will never renounce Sharia. Even if the islamist leaders in France promulgated a 100 year moratorium on everything that bothers the French, Sharia will remain a sword of Damocles that will fall fatally on your heads one day, unless you oppose Islam firmly and at the official level, without appeal.

You have already made Islam a religion of state when your leaders deal with the UOIF and CFCM, and trasnfer part of the authority of the state to them in a sign of allegiance. Islam is a religion of state in France from the moment where your leaders celebrate it, cajole it, subsidise it, protect it, it and it alone. In a good Islamic state, France manages the questions of hijab, burka, street prayers, halal, lamb sacrifice, breaking the fast during Ramadan and “Islamic events” with supposedly moderate Muslim dignitaries. These dignitaries treat the elected representatives of the people like veritable tribal chiefs from whom they need allegiance and loyalty. And they get it!

When Dalil Boubekeur [head of Islamic association] speaks, he presents himself as as a second head of state, head high, wth a facile tongue and an assurance ready for any test. Islam is now at home in France, A mini-Islamic republic in the Republic. The cuckoo has laid its egg. Just a few more recalcitrant “tribal chiefs” to be reduced and the country will be declared “Dar al Islam”. Then they’ll just have to learn the technical modalities for practising Islam through the assimilation method. Morocco and Algeria will supply (are already supplying) teachers paid for with the taxes – I mean the zakat – of the French taxpayer.

Ordinary French people aren’t blind. They see the pressures their politicians are subjected to from the communitarian Muslim population organised in strata:
The mass of practising Muslims brandished as a threat to public order, Moderately radical Muslims whom their leaders think of as reservists, The militants Islamists who deal with propaganda, lobbying and legal jihad, the Salafists who create a diversion and the terrorists who terrorise.

They form an ensemble of players who work in concert with only one objective: forcing the Republic to bend to their will by forcing the politicians and institutions to bend to their will. All are hammering on the same nail : sharia, the ultimate goal of Islamic doctrine. Do you think all the North Africans were islamised one by one the day after the landing at Oqba? No. It was necessary to islamise the chiefs of the tribes first of all, then mark the physical, political, cultural environment with Islamic markers. Once this environment has become familiar to the natives, the leaders have no trouble islamising their small tribes “en masse”. Sharia follows later to ensure that the process remains irreversible. That’s what the conquering Muslims in France are trying to do. Tariq Ramadan is the first to swear that there is no question of sharia in France. But inside he adds: “for now”. What Muslim, however moderate, would be ready to definitively and publicly renounce sharia? At best, they will defer it till later. The more cheeky claim that it is these others who are deficient in intellect and don’t properly understand sharia.

Not have weapons to match the West, the islamist conquerors don’t lower their arms for all that. They fight, conduct their jihad openly, mobilise more and more troops, form alliances with NGOs, infiltrate the political world, literally buy the conscience of elected officials and use the slightest flaw in the law to turn it to their advantage. As the icing on the cake, they authorise here and there some attacks and murders, to show the capacity of this foul ideology to do harm and thus paralyse any vague desire to resist. Ils montent haut la barre pour amener les Français à accepter un SMIG islamique dans un premier temps. The French leftists don’t understand that what they call Salafists are to the moderates (Moussaoui, Boubekeur, Ramadan and other preachers) what air power is to infantry. Air power smashes all serious defences, which allows the infantry to advance by stealth until it has encircled the enemy HQ and forced the generals to surrender. The French “generals” here are the elected representatives of the people and the government. They are surrendering one by one.

In the end, in France, the Islamist conquerors are doing their job of conquerors, but those who are supposed to defend the homeland – that is to say the politicians, the ministers, civil society, the intellectuals…- are not doing the job of patriots. That’s why Islam is penetrating into France like butter. Without the slightest resistance. Those who try to resist are just ordinary citizens who end up neutralised by the law, discredited by the politically correct or intimidated by the readymade thoughts beaten in day and night by the media. At the slightest misdemeanour, they are hauled in front of the tribunals under the ironic eye of the burka and kamis wearers, more arrogant than ever. This isn’t meant to discourage you, but I doubt very much that those who are Islam-aware in the virtual world are going to succeed in dissolving the UOIF, or the CFCM, or in getting an event of the pyromaniac Tariq Ramadan banned, or even closing the site oumma.com, this giant mosque filled with islamist propagande, brainwashing material and smears of French patriots. It’s no longer that the worm is inside the fruit, but the fruit is enmeshed in a tangle of slimy worms. In France, those who present themselves as saviours of Marianne [symbol of France] engage in navel-gazing, cry cock-a-doodle-doo, make fun of the islamists instead of combating them on the ground, get caught up in moaning and remain on the defensive against MRAP, LICRA, SOS Racisme [all “anti-racist” multicult associations] and other French “intellectuals”, notorious and well-established collaborators. These terrific online resistance fighters end up disappearing, like Bivouac ID and Liberty vox [French anti-Islam websites] or reduced to defending their skin like Riposte laïque.

In France, it is now fascist to fight against fascism. We’re right in 1984! Madness! It seems that fascism shouldn’t be fought against when it is hungry, when it is unemployed and when it is brought by hundreds of millions of people without resources, without culture, without education and, above all, without shame.

Intelligence officials angered by Obama administration cover up of intelligence on Iranian, al Qaeda surge in Egypt and Libya

BY: Bill Gertz:

Weeks before the presidential election, President Barack Obama’s administration faces mounting opposition from within the ranks of U.S. intelligence agencies over what careerofficers say is a “cover up” of intelligence information about terrorism in North Africa.

Intelligence held back from senior officials and the public includes numerous classified reports revealing clear Iranian support for jihadists throughout the tumultuous North Africa and Middle East region, as well as notably widespread al Qaeda penetration into Egypt and Libya in the months before the deadly Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.

“The Iranian strategy is two-fold: upping the ante for the Obama administration’s economic sanctions against Iran and perceived cyber operations against Iran’s nuclear weapons program by conducting terror attacks on soft U.S. targets and cyber attacks against U.S. financial interests,” said one official, speaking confidentially.

The Iranian effort also seeks to take the international community’s spotlight off Iran’s support for its Syrian ally.

Two House Republicans, Reps. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) and Jason Chaffetz (R., Utah), stated in a letter sent this week to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that officials “with direct knowledge of events in Libya” revealed that the Benghazi attack was part of a string of terror attacks and not a spontaneous uprising against an anti-Muslim video produced in the U.S. The lawmakers have scheduled congressional hearings for Oct. 10.

Susan Phalen, spokeswoman for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers (R., Mich.), said the panel is “reviewing all relevant intelligence and the actions of the [intelligence community], as would be expected of the oversight committee.”

But she noted: “At this point in time it does not appear that there was an intelligence failure.”

Intelligence officials pointed to the statement issued Sept. 28 by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) that raised additional concern about the administration’s apparent mishandling of intelligence. The ODNI statement said that “in the immediate aftermath, there was information that led us to assess that the attack began spontaneously following protests earlier that day at our embassy in Cairo.”

Officials say the ODNI’s false information was either knowingly disseminated or was directed to be put out by senior policy officials for political reasons, since the statement was contradicted by numerous intelligence reports at the time of the attack indicating it was al Qaeda-related terrorism.

Among the obvious signs of terrorism was the arms used by the attackers, who were equipped with rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles.

A U.S. intelligence official who disputes the idea of an Obama administration coverup said: “Intelligence professionals follow the information wherever it leads.”

“When there isn’t definitive information, it makes sense to be cautious,” the official said. “There has never been a dogmatic approach to analyzing what happened in Benghazi. Staying open to alternative explanations—and continually refining assessments as new and credible information surfaces—is part of the intelligence business.”

Officials with access to intelligence reports, based on both technical spying and human agents, said specific reporting revealed an alarming surge in clandestine al Qaeda activity months before the attack in Benghazi.

Yet the Obama administration sought to keep the information from becoming public to avoid exposing what the officials say is a Middle East policy failure by Obama.

Officials said that the administration appeared to engage in a disinformation campaign aimed at distancing the president personally during the peak of the presidential election campaign from the disaster in Benghazi, where numerous warning of an attack were ignored, resulting in the deaths of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other officials.